Dynamics of the excitations of a quantum dot in a microcavity

TL;DR

This paper investigates the quantum dynamics of a quantum dot in a microcavity under strong coupling, revealing conditions for non-classical light generation and spectral features influenced by pumping and emission rates.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of the quantum dot-microcavity system, identifying parameter regimes for non-classical photon statistics and spectral behavior.

Findings

Identification of parameter ranges for non-classical photon statistics.

Observation of one or two spectral peaks depending on system parameters.

Demonstration of the influence of pumping and stimulated emission rates on emission spectra.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of a quantum dot embedded in a three-dimensional microcavity in the strong coupling regime in which the quantum dot exciton has an energy close to the frequency of a confined cavity mode. Under the continuous pumping of the system, confined electron and hole can recombine either by spontaneous emission through a leaky mode or by stimulated emission of a cavity mode that can escape from the cavity. The numerical integration of a master equation including all these effects gives the dynamics of the density matrix. By using the quantum regression theorem, we compute the first and second order coherence functions required to calculate the photon statistics and the spectrum of the emitted light. Our main result is the determination of a range of parameters in which a state of cavity modes with poissonian or sub-poissonian (non-classical) statistics can be built up within the microcavity. Depending on the relative values of pumping and rate of stimulated emission, either one or two peaks close to the excitation energy of the dot and/or to the natural frequency of the cavity are observed in the emission spectrum. The physics behind these results is discussed.